Iraq,April 21,2010 : Iraqi and US troops killed a regional leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq in an early morning raid yesterday, as security forces continue to put pressure on the terrorist organization after the reported deaths of its two top-ranking figures over the weekend, officials said.

Abu Ayyub al-Masri the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq,and a close associate Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, were tracked on Sunday to a safe house near Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. US forces fired two missiles at the house and Iraqi troops stormed it. An American helicopter crashed during the assault, killing a soldier.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri were killed in Sunday’s joint operation, which Vice President Joe Biden called a “potentially devastating blow’’ to Al Qaeda in Iraq. The elusive leaders were killed in their desert safehouse about 6 miles southwest of Tikrit.Also killed in the attack were al-Baghdadi’s son and al-Masri’s assistant.“Their deaths are potentially devastating blows to al-Qaeda Iraq,” said Joe Biden, the US Vice-President.

The killing of the Al Qaeda figures comes at a critical moment for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has staked his reputation on being the man who can restore stability to Iraq after years of bloodshed. His coalition came in second in March’s national election, but neither he nor his main rival has been able to muster enough support to form a new government.Military pictures of the remote one-story safehouse showed its roof caved in and its mudbrick walls partly destroyed.

Major General Stephen Lanza, a US military spokesman, said the bodies of Masri and Baghdadi were identified using DNA matching, as well as fingerprint analysis and other methods.

“During the operation computers were seized with e-mails and messages to the two biggest terrorists, Osama bin Laden and [his deputy] Ayman al-Zawahiri,” the Prime Minister said, adding that forensic tests had confirmed the identities of the two leaders.